Why great Instagram captions are worth the effort

Gaining followers on Instagram isn’t only about taking the photograph and editing it to perfection. The quality of your photos and captions can be the difference between getting a few more followers, or getting more followers interested in your brand and the human side of your business. Captions are an opportunity to explain a bit about the picture, or say something humorous, not just an afterthought.

When composing your Instagram caption, think about the following:

Write down a few versions of your caption and think about them for a while before posting. While Instagram might be about documenting your images in real time, the level of engagement your posts receive matters more than the chronology.

Put the important stuff in at the start of your caption – the character limit on Instagram (2 200 characters) doesn’t really matter, it’s more about the cut-off after three or four lines of text in your user feed. Put any CTAs or important content at the start and save the hashtags and links for the end.

Use Call To Actions in your caption – this can be a question to spark a conversation, a directive to click on a link in your bio, or an invitation for your followers to tag their friends. Using verbs in your caption increases the likelihood of sharing.

Don’t use more than 4 hashtags. Like Twitter and Facebook, a hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream, so as long as your account is public, anyone searching under a certain hashtag will find your Instagram post. Too many starts to look spammy, so don’t be tempted to use a string of searchable hashtags.

Use a lighter tone than you would on other social media platforms – keep it light-hearted and fun, to show off the more personable side of your business. Puns work well, showing cleverness with a twist of humour.

Use emoji’s to add some personality. They are undisputedly successful with smartphone users, so they resonate well. They also take up less space, allowing you to ‘say’ more in your first few lines.

Your caption might need to be long, like if you’re posting an entire recipe with your image, but if you’re unsure, keep your caption brief. Let your visual do the talking.

For more on social networking and using platforms, like Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter to give your business a voice, contact us. There’s a mine of information out there, and we’d love to assist in crafting a digital marketing strategy that works for your business.